"car"

And the following question is "Why?".

Standard issue in the toxic masculinity starter pack.

Small peepee

US auto makers failed at making 4 cylinder engines compared to Japan. So they consolidated around the v8 which they did really well. Everything else is a result of marketing and affordability over the years.

cause they don’t allow cooler cars in the US anymore

The F150 is not a car, it’s a truck. For Americans, it’s a different category, for (many) Europeans, it’s a type of car.

I don't think the article specifically addresses it, but I'd guess that their numbers account for fleet purchases, which are always going to skew the numbers a bit

I don’t agree they failed - there are plenty 4 cylinder and hybrid cars available.
The thing is- people want trucks, and either they can afford them, or dealers and banks gaslight them to believe they can afford them. So that’s what people buy.
I always find it funny when people explain the American auto market’s characteristics by shitting on how stupid American auto industry can’t even make cars. That is irrelevant, a bunch of people drive japanese or european cars if that’s what they want, it’s not like there aren’t imports available. People buy big ass trucks (including Toyota btw) because that’s what they want to drive. It’s that simple.
Manufacturers make what people want, for the most part.

And the dingleberry on top of the shit sundae is that Ford also killed off the EV version. Sure, the F-150 has a lot of problems simply based on its size. But, it is the most popular vehicle in the US and no amount of whining about it is going to change that fact. So, instead of pissing in the wind, the EV F-150 at least tried to meet people where they are. Unfortunately, sales weren't great and Ford gave up on the project. The only upshot is that the venn diagram of diesel F-150 owners whining about gas prices and Trump voters is a small circle fully inside a larger circle. So, the right people are feeling pain.

The two things you need to understand about America(ns)…. American is spread out. Like seriously large and open. This has lead to a lot of “super-sizing” in general. Not just their guts. Houses, cars, etc.

The second aspect is people buy for the “5% chance”, not their 95% daily habits. What I mean by this is they might have to haul something once a year, or they might end up having to take a long road trip. Rather than renting for that one day, for that one specific purpose they want something that can do it all (incidentally this is also why EVs have had a tough time catching on).

Those two points make the F150 perfectly slotted to be the most popular “car”.

Originally the F-150 was a perfect vehicle for most of non-urban America. It was very inexpensive (not a joke), simple to fix (also not a joke), dependable (I swear I'm not trolling), and very utilitarian. Eventually it became an icon and the default purchase for many, even though the more popular models have lost all of the features that made it attractive to begin with.

Not quite. There has been a systemic push to grow the size of US vehicles. Why can you not find ANY small trucks? It's NOT because every American that wants a truck wants a big one.

This isn't a conspiracy in the loonie sense. It's completely true, though it was a conspiracy to manipulate the market, which succeeded. It started with the Chicken Tax.

Just make sure your schadenfreude doesn't evolve into stooping to their level. That's how we've ended up circling the drain even in an age of technological boom.

It also used to be a reasonable size. Larger than sedans, bit not by nearly as much.

No, it's because the US government works for corporations and always has.

Trucks have gotten bigger because of a concerted effort to manipulate the market by automakers for over 50 years. It started with the Chicken Tax.

Not everyone that wants a truck is dumb enough to want a big one, even in the US.

Now I'm stuck trying to figure out what the EV equivalent of "rolling coal" would be.

Poorly executed vehicle efficiency requirements based on vehicle footprint ended up as a pressure for larger vehicles as well, which led to the rise in SUVs and oversized puckups.

Oh yeah, and not five foot tall at the hood by default.

Fuckin rednecks

People don't realize how much of that is due to fleet sales.

Fleet sales are a huge factor.

I would have loved one of the EV F150s, but I'm poor

I saw an OG F-100 truck the other day. The roof of its cab is about the same height as the hood of these new monsters.

I’m not poor and never would buy one at the current generation, was hoping for them to improve it a bit but here we are

Or manufacture desire, let's not forget

It is interesting seeing Americans always complaining about gas prices(especially now) whilst also owning vehicles that use up fuel by just looking at them.

I don't buy the America-big explanation. For that matter, so is Russia. The original colonies weren't that big, just the Western states with hardly anybody in them. And this culture is on display even in geographically-constrained areas, like Manhattan, Los Angeles, Hawaii, and the like.

The classics of racism and toxic individualism provide better explanations.

Can confirm. The idiots in my state don't even allow kei trucks on the road. Farmers still import them for getting actual work done on their own land, though.

I don’t understand how you think marketing explains consumer choice for trucks over cars. There’s no central advertising committee that bans the advertising of cars. There are in fact ads for cars and suvs as well. There is no concentrated marketing campaign against cars.

Isn't this has been #1 for like 25 or 30 years, except one year it was the Camry or something?

Fuckin fleets of rednecks

This is stricktly anecdotal but in my market it is clearly visible how car advertisement is heavily shifted towards SUVs. On television, magazines, etc. There is more publicity put towards SUVs.

There isn't a central committee for advertising but it is easy to manufacture desire subtly. If a brand is well know for small hatchbacks but is aware the SUV segment is more popular or returns more profit, the advertisement can be engineered towards that particular segment in detriment of another.

Tesla roadster blasting 10000psi of compressed air and road debris on anyone around them to hop over a speed bump

GM bought, built and jointly developed four cilinder engines in Europe for decades. They could just as simply brought home the technology and implement it.

From a long conversation I had with a few people that lived in the US for some decades, it's about the perception of size and power. It's about showing. There is a Camry where I live, gas engine; the car is a land yacht, the engine must be huge. For what? Next to the same car, a BMW is parked every day, smaller engine, much more power, a completely different level of manufacture.

I think you misunderstood what a light truck is . All pickups are in this category.
A tariff on imports is hardly forcing American manufacturers and consumers to prefer bigger trucks and cars. They could just make them smaller if the smaller versions sold better.
The purpose of the tariff is:

to give US domestic automakers an advantage over imported competitors

Ok mr goal post mover. Is the big conspiracy to sell pickup trucks or to sell suvs? Or they haven’t decided yet?

is aware the SUV segment is more popular or returns more profit

That’s reaction to demand (my point) not manufacturing desire.

Everyone asking why and making jokes about masculinity are missing this point entirely. Ford is the most popular truck when it comes to fleets and actual work trucks, the kind you see with a flat bed or tons of built in metal tool boxes.

Wait they're no longer selling the F-150 Lightning? WTF, Ford?!

That's some VW "Oh we didn't make all the money instantly with BEV cars, so we'll scale down our fleet and effort because of all the poor shareholders"-shortsightedness (which in VW's case at least bit them in the arse properly, because right after they did that reversal BEVs got the upswing that everyone with 10+ braincells knew they'd get based on other countries, and now VW is falling behind)

that’s the particular model I had in mind too; it’s such a shame how corporations completely run the show here

25 "Flash" trim (mid tier) here. They took some features away in 2024 (80A charging/V2L) but switched to a heat pump making it more winter efficient. And ditched the phone as a key, which is the only thing I really wish they kept.

Best vehicle I've owned. And huge space in the back for car seats and crap.

Small dick energy is strong with this one

In my market [...]

I was concise.

There is something I gladly grant to americans and is that they know how to sell anything. If european brands started to create desire for SUVs even by moving away from their signature vehicles, americans can do it as well, if not better, for those monstrosities on wheels.

Hence, my quip.

I second toxic individualism.

It remains me of Rome just before collapse.

There are many lists of "most popular vehicles" out there. The F-150 tops some of those lists and doesn't even appear on others. There are a lot of games one can play with specificity to make something more prominent ("Ford F-series") or less prominent ("Ram 1500 Rumble Bee") in a list like that.

But the point -- that we have more pickup trucks than can reasonably be justified -- stands.

the kind you see with a flat bed or tons of built in metal tool boxes

Those are probably not 150s, though.

I see it this way: Yes, a lot of our local rural and suburban infrastructure is spread-out and car-centric, but that was a result of our choices and policies. (Which does indeed include a big helping of cloaked racial segregation.) It's not the case that we were forced by geography to do this to ourselves.

"America is just so spread out" can be read as "We just didn't plan this too well."

Yes, although it breaks down a bit better when you look by state. Unfortunately, iirc Tesla Y was leading in the West and the other sections are just other trucks, like the Silverado.

I'm half grateful it's not at all true in Los Angeles*, but my neighbor loves loud muscle cars so I can't say we're better. At least in every neighborhood I can spot the asshole pretty easily.

*Edit, should say overall. Plenty of pavement princesses in some locals. Our trucks in my neighborhood are usually older and full of gardening equipment lol

As I understand it, the F-150 Lightning was the rare beast that was overengineered in the best way. Ford killed it because they figured out that they made more money making batteries for the grid, so they retooled the facilities for that.

If you bought a Lightning, don't sell it.

I wonder if people will start to use AI to replace the code once Ford drops support.

By the time I was considering an AWD one as a sled carrier, they discontinued it. Now I'm looking at old Tundras and Titans.